Michele Brannon-Hamilton's Blog

Communication Tools

Literacy instructors and learners will benefit greatly from both the synchronous and asynchronous tools available in Moodle. My course is designed for instructors working with adult literacy learners in mixed mode classes. I have set up the course to mimic online literacy classes so that instructors can experience the format and tools their learners will use.

I chose communication tools that allow learners to feel connected to their instructor and each other, thereby creating a sense of community among a group of learners who have traditionally felt secluded. As pointed out in ETEC 565 course material, it is “interactions that determine our relationship with our students” (Course) and these relationships help literacy learners succeed.

By starting with simple tools, instructors can allow students to become comfortable with the Moodle platform while connecting with the instructor and other students. After working through the Moodle Demonstration site, I picked the following two communication tools, forum and chat, for the following reasons: ease of use, availability, benefits to students and benefits to instructors.

These tools support my goal of having an active, interactive, safe and educational environment for literacy instructors and learners. Forum and chat tools promote active learning, communication (Chickering), facilitation and participation which are all important in a literacy class. A detailed analysis follows.

The Forum Tool: asynchronous, two way communication
Literacy instructors can communicate with their learners while experiencing the freedom of time and space that will benefit students who often face transportation and time barriers.

Instructors can use forums to lead the class by posting topics that students will answer and instructors can use forums to encourage students to create their own discussion topics. Initially, students may prefer to be led but once students feel more confident and safe they can be encouraged to create their own topics independently. Independence of thought is an important goal in literacy.

Forums encourage collaboration because students work together to answer questions, solve problems and share information. These are skills literacy learners need to pursue further education or enter the work force.

Since forums can be accessed anytime anywhere, students can take their time answering posts, think before they speak and check their spelling.

Students can use Moodle forums from home, in class or anywhere they can access the Internet. Since not all literacy learners have home computers, convenience, easy access and ease of use are important considerations.

Instructors can use forums to encourage writing, thinking and participating. Some discussions can be set up for casual topics and others can be for answering teacher’s questions. Instructors can also tailor discussions to specific literacy levels by creating distinct discussion groups. Furthermore, they can track or assess student participation by following student involvement in the discussions as well as looking at the participant list.

While setting up this course, I chose not to grade or block this tool since I want people to try it out freely. In a real class, I would not grade the first forum but may grade later ones once students became more comfortable with the tool. Although available, I would not set a date to end the discussion since literacy learners work at different paces and levels.

Limitations
Instructors must also be aware of the forum tool’s limitations. For example, students who are working by themselves may become discouraged with the forum tool if they misunderstand how to access particular topics. They may also experience “information overload” (Course, p.9.) if too many students are posting to the same discussion which can cause learners to bail out. Instructors must be very careful this doesn’t happen with literacy learners who may have had many negative school experiences already. Instructors must also watch the forum discussions for proper netiquette. Despite these limitations, instructors can use the forum tool to create a positive learning experience.

Testing
I tested the forum tool to make sure it would work well in the online classroom by looking at my June 8-14 discussion forum called Looking at Your Moodle Page. First, I switched my role to student and answered the questions that I posted as administrator. I was able to read the initial post and start two new discussion topics. Then I switched back to my administrator role and answered my mock student teacher questions. Instructors can track student participation by following the discussion dates and assess learner progress by reading the posts for quality. I think literacy instructors and learners will find this tool easy to use.

The Chat Tool: synchronous, two way communication
Literacy instructors can connect to each other and to their students using the chat tool. By trying it in this mock course, instructors can experience how this communication tool allows learners to feel safe and secure while chatting with those in the classroom. Security is very important with literacy learners who often come back to school after negative school experiences.

Students feel connected to the instructor and to others in the class when using the real time interaction of the chat tool. This personalized two-way communication tool allows students to meet their instructor and each other which can take away the fear of learning alone by creating a sense of real community. Students have the chance to talk in real time about any topic and receive an immediate response.

Although I chose a specific chat time when setting up my course, I left the chat open so that anyone who wants to try this tool can. However, in my real class I will set the time so students can enter the discussion only when scheduled. I also chose the option of keeping all posts so anyone who misses a session can read the chat at a later date.

Limitations
The chat tool also has limitations. For example, chatting in real time forces people to be online at a specific time. If they are not available at the specified time, they miss the opportunity to feel personally connected to the instructor and the other students. Adult literacy learners often have jobs and families which may compound this problem.

Secondly, students may feel uncomfortable with this type of interaction because they will have no time to think before they answer questions. They may also have to type fast to keep up with the conversation and may get confused if too many people are chatting at once.

Instructors risk the chance that any topic can come up including inappropriate comments and they must also accommodate learners with different levels of literacy. Low level learners may feel inadequate chatting with higher level learners. Despite these limitations, the chat tool creates a sense of community very similar to face to face literacy classrooms.

Testing
I tested the chat tool to make sure it would work well in the online classroom by clicking the chat topic in the introduction module called Nice to Meet You! First, I switched my role to student and read the instructor’s initial post. Then I entered the chat and typed a hello to any other participants. When I clicked enter, my words appeared on the page. My only concern was that it happened a bit slower than I expected.

Then I switched back to my administrator role and replied to the mock student teacher. I was able to see both sentences I had typed. Also, I looked at the list of participants and the chat report to track student participation. I believe instructors and learners will find this tool easy to use.

Conclusion
Overall, I chose the forum and chat tools for my Moodle course so that literacy instructors could test synchronous and asynchronous tools that would suit their literacy students best. Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model suggests instructors understand what will work best for their particular students and consider the difficulty of the particular tools. These points are particularly relevant to literacy learners who have often struggled with education throughout their lives. Literacy students are a unique group of learners who need supportive forms of interaction.

Traditionally, literacy instructors facilitated classes using a learner centred approach that includes active learning and interaction which Chickering suggests are important in education (Chickering). Instructors can use the forum and chat tools to continue these practices online.

References

Anderson, T. (2008a). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Accessed online June 2009: http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf

Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Athabasca University. Accessed online June 2009 http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008_Anderson-DeliveryQualitySupport.pdf

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology, In A.w. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp.75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Retrieved online 12 May 2009
http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm

Course Notes. (2009). ETEC 565 Module 3

Synchronous Tools. (2009). ETEC 565 Toolkit.